When Cupid Lost One Wing
by Arisa Aihara
Summary: D'you know what happens when Cupid loses one of his wings...? Well, besides him being unable to fly steadily, his magic doesn't work properly too. What happens to those he shot when his magic does not work anymore?


**When Cupid Lost One Wing**

It all started as a joke. Hikari told me the joke — she said she got it from Takeru. That little boy…I honestly have no idea where he got all these creative things. Well, anyway, Hikari told me back then, about one-sided love and how it happened. She first asked me, "Do you know how Cupid looks like, niisan?" And then I answered "Yeah, course I do!"

She took out one of her drawings and showed it to me. This drawing was weird — it was a picture of an angel (Cupid, maybe) but he only had one wing. The other one was missing.

I remembered frowning at the drawing before saying, "Mou, Hikari-chan… What happened to this fella? Is he hurt?"

"Well, he lost his wing," Hikari said, pointing out the obvious. "That's how one-sided love happens, niisan!"

Hell I was shocked back then. How the heck did she learn about _one-sided love?_ She's only ten! "I don't quite understand you, Hika."

"You see, when the Cupid only has one wing, he couldn't do his task properly like always. When he shoots someone, that someone would fall in love with someone else who's _already_ in love… It's because of the Cupid's missing wing — his magic cannot work properly!"

"Riiight…right," I said, my eyes frowning at the drawing. "And who told you this?"

"Taaaaakeru!" she said fondly, backing away from the room and running towards the phone. "He's supposed to call me and then we're heading off to the ice cream shop." The phone rang and she grinned. "At least the Cupid who is watching over us right now has both wings," she said before answering the phone. I shook my head and looked once more at the drawing of the deformed angel.

And I got scolded when Hikari discovered that I had drawn the other wing on the Cupid using a yellow crayon.

Well, guess what? I chocked on my orange juice. I _chocked on my orange juice _when I heard about it. I _choked —_ get it? — when I heard about it. So, Yamato was dating Sora. Sora! And _Yamato! _My two best friends, imagine that. Well, actually I laughed after I choked because I knew Yamato — even though he was a quiet dude, he loved to flirt too, ya know. Being the lead singer and all, and at such a young age too… So I was not bothered.

Even if I was, I was sure that, deep inside, Sora preferred me rather than Yamato. Why? Well, because we were Taichi and Sora, that's why! Our story started waaaaay back, before Yamato even got into the picture.

So I felt secured, I felt safe.

But once more I choked (on my coffee this time) when I heard it: Yamato and Sora, _an item. _Well, everyone saw the picture — it was when Diablomon came back. Darn that stupid Digimon — it showed the picture of the bed sheets on which I had p— never mind. And it showed the picture of those two dating. _Dating! _I never knew…!

I began to feel…insecure, after seeing that one photo. Then slowly, one by one, I began to see the signs: Sora making bento for Yamato, Sora walking home with him (not that it was strange, but usually we — all THREE of us — would walk together…but not this time), Yamato suddenly reading about _ikebana _(imagine — YAMATO — reading about _IKEBANA? _What the hell…?) and all other things that I had pathetically failed to notice earlier.

I asked Takeru once about this whole Cupid-missing-a-wing thing, and he laughed sheepishly.

"Hehe, Taichi-san…you, err, believe in that?" he asked hesitantly. I just nodded.

"Hmm, yeah. Why not? C'mon, tell me more about it."

"Well, OK," he started hesitantly. "When the Cupid lost one of his wings, he began to feel sad cuz — well, cuz it's his wing! So he went around, looking for it but he was too miserable to keep on looking. So he randomly shoots, and it randomly hits someone. Now, the one-sided love produced by this dude would slowly result in pain, hatred, jealousy, envy — and these feelings would produce…a new wing."

I frowned. "Out of hatred and envy? Out of pain, out of jealousy?"

Takeru grinned again. "Love is not that easy, Taichi-san. Pain, jealousy, envy and hatred _are_ the essence of love. And by the way, it's just a story. A stupid one at that…"

But hey, guess what? Wait for it — _I believe in the story. _I mean, not literally, but…yeah, it made sense. What Teeks said to me back then was quite wise: _pain, jealousy, envy and hatred are the essence of love…_ I mean, love couldn't be love if those things weren't there, right…?

_Right —_and here I am, telling _you _this story.

"Taichi? Oh man — he's drunk — TAICHI!"

"…Whaaaaaaaa…? Can't you see m'busy 'ere?"

The guests (the remainder of them, at least) laughed, adding the pain to my already spinning head. Rolling his eyes, Yamato sat down next to me and slapped my back several times, making me choke on the lovely drink that I couldn't quite recall what it was called.

"C'mon, you've had enough," Yamato said, trying his best to get the bottle of that lovely drink away from me. But I stood my ground! Hell yeahh!

"Ohh no you don't!" I said, standing up and snatching the bottle back. "M' gonna drink this till Genai gets youngerrr! NO ONE CAN STOP ME (try if you dare)!" With that, I uncorked the bottle and drank directly from it. The room kinda fell quiet, but new noises erupted from the other end of the room. I couldn't really tell who was screaming and stuff (cuz the noise just made the whole world spin faster), but somehow my eyes and ears only saw and heard Sora and her voice…

Before I knew it, the bottle was snatched away from my hands — but it wasn't Yamato, and it wasn't Sora too. It was—

"Mimi — oh, Mimi, you'll get a headache tomorrow and—"

But Mimi was not listening. She was gulping down the rest of the addictive liquid down her throat, her face red. When she was done, she wiped her mouth, and said, "Oh, no, Sora! Sure I'm fine — I'm just happy that you're married and stuff — oof! Hey, gerroff, Taichi!"

I was trying to get the bottle back. "Whaddaya mean, 'gerroff'? — that's _mine_, I got it first, thank you…!"

"Okay, enough of this, you two! It's late and you should really go back to you hotel rooms and rest!" Sora snapped, grabbing the bottle and raising it into the air, so that none of us drunkees could reach it.

Both of us protested with strings of non-understandable words.

Yamato said something, and he sounded as if he had lost all patience, but then someone else butted in. They talked, and hesitantly, both Sora and Yamato left us and went to entertain the other guests instead. Sighing, that new someone sat down opposite us.

"You — whoever you are — gimme another bottle of that…that…thingy…" Mimi demanded, snapping her fingers in a demanding way. A young, friendly voice replied:

"I'm afraid that's out of order, Mimi-san."

It was Takeru — that lucky boy.

"Teeeeeekss! Well, whaddaya know! When didja get here?" I said, standing up to greet him, but I fell on my seat once more. Hey, hey — my knees weren't working properly…

"Oh, just recently," he replied casually. Even though I was DRUNK!, I knew that people should always try to tell the people who were drunk that they were drunk, but Takeru did nothing of the sort. The way he talked to us was as if we were perfectly OK and not drunk.

"I dun care when the heck you arrived — _I-want-more-of-that-drink!" _Mimi said loudly, sounding like a little baby throwing tantrums at her mummy.

"I've _told _you, you can't have any more of it," Takeru said. "Maybe you should taste their cake. I'll get some for you two, okay?"

Despite our refusal ("I've had enough of that fattening stuffffff!" cried Mimi), Takeru went to get some cake and returned to our table. He placed the plate in front of me, and I stared.

My vision wasn't that good at the moment — but the cake…Takeru had picked the one with a small angel made of icing on top…

"Heyy…Teeks…what's da first thing you remember when you see this, ehh?" I asked, taking the angel off the cake and examining it.

"…I remember Angemon," he said.

"LIAR!" I roared, and again, the room fell quiet for a while. "Oh, don't mind me! I'm discussing politics with this here the president of the Digital World!" I said, patting Takeru's hand, and everyone ignored us once more. "…Thaat's right, ignore me…I'm drunk anyway…" Then I burst into a throaty chuckle. "C'mon, Takeru — what's the first thing you remember when you see this…?"

"I've told you—"

"Yea, yea…that story you once told me, riiiight?" I cut across him. In a way a drunken man would've said it, I said, "What causes one-sided love?"

I poked Mimi's shoulder. "Oi, you! What causes one-sided love?" I asked her, and she frowned angrily at me, but her eyes stared up to the heavens as she thought of the answer.

"Jyou when he has Ikkakumon-pox," Mimi replied before returning to her cake. I made a face and shook my head.

"Nuooooo, that's WRONG!" I said, and put an arm around her and showed her the little angel made of icing. Mimi tried hard to focus on it. "Ya see, when Cupid loses one of his wings," I said, breaking the angel's icing wing, "his magic won't work properly. Soooo, he went on shooting arrows randomly…cuz he's sad that his wing's missing!"

"I see, I see," Mimi said, nodding along with me.

"Those who were shot," I continued, "will fall in love with someone who's already in love with someone else…!"

Mimi nodded again and again, but she was unable to speak.

"But you know what?" I whispered to her.

"What?" she whispered back.

"That one-sided love…will result in pain, right?"

Mimi nodded again. "Right you are!"

"And hatred…"

"Mm-hmm," Mimi agreed, making a funny expression.

"And jealousy…"

"Yeahh…" I heard Mimi sobbed, but I paid no attention. I was busy looking at the angel in my hand, with its wing missing.

"And misery…" I finished. "Funny though…all these feelings…will help Mr. Cupid build…a new wing — out of our pain, our jealousy and our misery…"

Mimi was positively crying now. "Bad Mr. Cupid!" she wailed. "Why did he do that to _me? _Why must his wing went missing and why must he shoot _meee?"_

I was unable to process what the freaking heck she was wailing about — but I was still observing that small icing figure in my hand.

"…Because…it's the essence of love," I quoted Takeru's words quietly before chuckling. I rested my head on the cold table, chuckling non-stop, with Mimi crying next to me. Sure — we make one heck of a drunken couple, yah?

Suddenly someone took the angel out of my hand.

"You know something, Taichi-san…?" came Takeru's voice. I struggled to sit up straight. "I didn't tell you something…"

"Whazzat?"

"When Cupid lost _two _of his wings," Takeru said, breaking the other wing from the icing figure and handing it to Mimi, "and the people he shot got together…"

Takeru held my hand (the one with the wing) and Mimi's hand (also the one with the wing), and brought them together.

"…It'll produce another pure love — out of pain, out of jealousy, and out of misery, a new love is born…"

Blinking rather stupidly, I looked at my hand, which was held by Mimi's. She stared at me with red, wet eyes.

"…And then what happens?" she asked Takeru, who smiled a small smile.

"And then they lived happily every after."

**A/N: **Ikebana is the Japanese art of arranging flowers.


End file.
